Monday, January 31, 2011

The Arabians, the Quarter Horses, and the Journey Part 7

His name was Made By Monico, Koalt for the barn. He was 17 years old and a real bulldog of a horse, a very classic example of a Foundation Quarter Horse. He stood at 14.3hh and was a beautiful dark bay with golden highlights. But originally, I didnt see all that the day that I met him. Originally, I saw a mean, angry, scary looking horse.

He stood in the cross ties with pinned flat ears. The owner cinched him up and he tried aggressively to bite the handler, fortunetly being resisted by the cross ties. I did not want to be within ten feet of the horse, and I certainly did not want to ride him as LF had suggested.

The girl looking to buy him climbed aboard with small blunt english spurs and equipped with a crop. We watched her go around the large indoor arena with him, jabbing with the spurs and smacking with the crop frequently to keep him moving. He had pinned ears all the while and was very resistent to doing anything. LF asked if I would get on next so she could determine if he would be suitable for her lesson program. No way no how was I getting on that monster. I blamed it on the English saddle, stating I had never ridden in one before, and I didnt have spurs. The owner insisted we could change the saddle to a Western one. I persisted that I did not want to ride.

Turns out, the girl didnt buy him, but instead he was donated to LF's lesson program. The day he arrived, the former owner rode him up the driveway bareback from the trails where she had her last ride on him. He compliantly came up the drive in a halter and lead rope and looked around at his new home. He didnt look near as mean, but I was still nervous about the horse I had seen at the Hunter facility.

Made By Monico, aka Koalt

LF decided to put him into one of her smaller pastures by himself for a while and help him learn how to deal with living in a large space. At the Hunter facility, he was confined to a very small paddock area with only a bit of tree coverage for shelter. No one knew if he had ever been on a large pasture before.

Koalt would stay in the nearest corner of the pasture next to the horses in the pasture beside it. He would only occupy about a 12x12 area of the pasture, always that small corner. If he ventured out past it, he would turn sharply around and beeline it back to the safety of the corner.

LF soon told me that Fawn would not be available for our lease anymore, instead she was going to have me use Koalt as my lease horse instead. I was upset. I did not want to ride his angry confused horse and it was totally unfair to rip Fawn out from underneath me. But LF sternly said that Koalt was the only horse I was able to work with and if I wanted to lease one, he was it. I sighed and dreaded what would come for me.

3 comments:

If that happened to me... I wouldn't have anything to do with them, but I guess the love of horses beat that for you!

That actually did kinda happen to me. I showed a horse named Sir Gallahad at a barn down the street from my house. I showed him for over 3 years. I won almost ever show on that horse and we had 2 out of 3 championships. It was awesome.

He ended up getting melanoma under his tail (he was a grey), and they sold him. I didn't go back to ride/show after that.

But I had my own horses by then and was satisfied training my SoBe! (:

I can't decide whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. I do see the opportunity to restore a horse's faith in humanity.

I got one of those. It was worth all the heartache.

Looking forward to the next installment. I wish I was posting this kind of a story right now, instead of a lousy experience with dishonest people. *sigh* I guess it takes all aspects to make up our experience with horses but your story is definitely more fun that mine.

About Me

A true Washington Cowgirl, I am always employing new ideas and methods behind my riding - a fabulous gelding named Milo. A forever student to the horse, I am on the road to discovering so much more about myself and these amazing animals then I ever thought possible.
"When I die and go to heaven, God's not going to ask me how many blue ribbons I won... He's going to ask- "what lessons did you learn from the animals I sent you?"" - Penny Jones